Me, myself and M.S….

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So since my last post I have been ‘brain storming’ by writing endless ‘mind maps’….pardon the puns, looking at how I can represent #GOOB in my new, hopefully 3D work.Reoccurring themes were that of transforming M.S into something precious and tactile with a delicate aesthetic, I love this idea on paper but will I be able to conjure this 3D beauty?

I began by looking at the beautiful organic shapes of my nasty lesions as I always do but this time the challenge was to try and interpret them as solid 3D objects.
So I doodled and doodled trying to get on paper what I had in my head which was quite tricky! I was also trying to think what it was I actually wanted to make, what the finished product would be, so i doodled some more and drew over Vogue fashion spreads to see what the shapes looked like on the body, but it just wasn’t working!

I usually get inspiration by design through making, trying out ideas by making little maquettes to see what works and what doesn’t. So that will be the next step, laser cutter and good old plasticine here I come!

I was also inspired by last weeks amazing show, Grayson Perry:Who Are You, where the eccentric potter interviews and bonds with various subjects to then create of a portrait of them using his very distinct concepts and artistic interpretation, which utterly wowed me. This got me thinking about #GOOB and made me realise that what I am creating will be my very own self portrait, I don’t know why this took me so long to realise but I am so happy that I did!

A strange title i know but the meaning of this hash tag rings so true to me!!

It simply means…. Good Out Of Bad which is exactly what I have been showing through my MS inspired prints but it is also the name of an exciting new creative collective which I was asked to be a part of by the great ShiftMS!

Myself and two fellow creative MSers, Hannah Laycock and Bryony Birkbeck, have been asked to produce new creative work in response to this inspiring brief, Good Out Of Bad! I am so excited to be part of this! If you would like to keep up with our creative journey please do read follow and even share our new blog!

Apologises for the lack of chat recently but I have been crazy busy getting ready for the Vanilla Ink End of Year Show!!!

Yup this year has flown by, I can’t quite believe it! So much has happened since it all began…I went in with the aim to create extravagant rubberised jewellery for the catwalk….fast forward a few months and I am launching my high end surface pattern design company, focusing heavily on soft furnishings and interior goodies! What a turn around huh?! But I love it and I am so excited to see what comes next for me and Charcot!!

Anyway back to the main point of this post, the Inkers final Show!!And here is the really exciting bit…it is not only our show but the first ever Scottish Jewellery Week thanks to the head of Vanilla Ink, Miss Kate Pickering!It will be a stunning festival featuring the best of Scottish Jewellery and their designers! And the even better part of this story is that is launches…THIS FRIDAY!!

See you all there, it is going to be great, cocktails, a catwalk show and us Inkers….what more do you need?!

With a mad run up to it for weeks, in the print studio non stop and running around to find the perfect venue, it finally all came together and I have to say it was the best night of my career…..so far!!

Apologies for keeping you all hanging, but I have been flying about trying to get back to normal after the success of the event!! Excited/exhausted and add a super hot holiday into the mix…..is a hard combo to deal with!

Right where to begin?!
Ok, set up day, a pretty stressful day, as I could do no more work for it, all my work was final and was about to be displayed for everyone to come and see!
With wallpaper samples still to be picked up from the printers and a lack of tacks to actually hang every, yeah I do silly things like forget vital things needed, I thought it was never going to come together! Oh and throw in an interview from STV smack bang in the middle of it all I almost crumbled!
But with the help of my amazing Inker gals it all finally fell into place and I loved it!

One end of the huge space was set up as a homely installation, to show how comforting and unrecognisable the lesions from my MRI Scans now were!

Lesion Print 100% wool cushions, screen printed by hand.

My favourite lesion print!

The rest of the space was used as a gallery ,displaying my Screen Prints.

When I finally saw all my work grouped together, I could see the whole collection was coming together and it got me so excited about continuing to develop and refine the rest of it!

Alongside my work was the Auction item area, which also looked great!!

Auction Items

My dear friends were so generous and donated some wonderful work and gifts!
A big shout out to Vanilla Ink and all my lovely Inkers for donating such beautiful pieces and a Make a Ring class. Thank you so much for all the other donations including stunning wine from Vinum, a Make a Lampshade class from the lovely Lovely Things, a print of yours truly by local artist Ryan Gordon and all the other little things that made lots of pennies on the night!!

Ok, it was almost go time, the cupcakes had just been set up and the wine had just arrived! I am not going to lie I don’t know if I was more excited about the event or the amazing Strawberry fizz from Cairn O’Mohr that would go perfectly with the vanilla cupcakes from The Santangeli Cakery anyway I had to get ready to hopefully greet lots of people?!!

Well what can I say….the number of people that attended was insane, the room was full, I couldn’t believe it!
What was even better was the reception to my work, it was great, far better than I ever expected! I got great support for fellow MSers but also the general public not only for the design side of my work but for the MS awareness side as well. So many people out there know of at least 1 person with MS, which still surprises me, but this meant they could relate to why I am determined to raise awareness of the condition.
It made me feel great, as a designer there is always the thought of ‘what if I am just making what I like and nobody else will like it or what if they don’t ‘get it’!! But they did, which has made me even more determined to make my work a success!

The night was going great, everyone was enjoying the food and drink, my work and most importantly bidding like crazy but the best was yet to come. I had organised to have some live music once bidding had closed.

We even got to taste other beauties from Cairn O’Mohr! Amazing!

Well that time came, oh so quick and the wonderful local artists Nicola Madill and Sean McGouldrick were setting up!
Wow they were brilliant, I now have a new love for acoustic music, it was incredible and everybody was loving them!

It was the perfect ending to what turned out to be the perfect night and perfect launch of Charcot!!

The next day I was on such a high but unfortunately I had to go and take down the display which was kind of sad, all that hard work…for one night!!
But I soon perked up when I started toting up the money which had been raised by donations, ticket sales and the great silent auction……..the Grand Total came to…..£1060!!
I had raised over £1000 for MS Society Scotland…in one night!! It blew me away!
A huge thanks to everyone that donated and helped me achieve this outstanding amount, couldn’t have done it without you!
Oh and the total is still rising thanks to other donations and I will be posting more pieces that were not snapped up on the night on the Charcot facebook page so we can make even more!!

So I have been a very busy girl…
I have been designing and making work for my new capsule collection, ‘Established 2007’, which is the first collection that will come under the name of my new business, ‘Charcot’.
I have also been organising an M.S fundraiser along with the launch of ‘Charcot’, which will take place as you can see, on World MS Day…this Wednesday 28th May at Wasps Studios in Dundee.

If you are free please come along, there will be super tasty cakes from The Santangeli Cakery, one or two delightful beverages and a Silent Auction, where you could treat yourself to some wonderful buys from local designers and artists and all proceeds raised will be going straight to M.S Society Scotland.
Oh and your chance to see what has been happening at ‘Charcot’ head quarters of course!

This is all very exciting and I am very pleased with what I have achieved so far.
But I am not going to lie, I have never experienced this amount of stress or fatigue since diagnosis. It has made me realise not only how much work goes into organising an event and also that designing and making the work at the same time as doing all this might have been a little bit too much for just myself to take on, but the main realisation is that I need to pace myself.
I have always told people,that ‘I am one of the lucky ones with M.S, I am not really severely affected by it like others.’.
Well this has been a major wake up call. Even after years of diagnosis, it has finally sunk in, I am not the person I used to be, I cant do it all, every day and night and jeez couldn’t even pull an all nighter even if I tried, unlike back in the day finishing course work the night before it was due in!
Maybe I have been in denial these past few years, I don’t know?! But I do know I need to listen to my body and slow it down when it says so!

On the plus side….this realisation has made me even more determined to make people aware of Multiple Sclerosis! As so many of the symptoms and problems MSers have to deal with on a daily basis are invisible people need to be educated!!
So after the launch and fundraiser…thats my next project! After my holiday of course!! 😛

Just a quick post today…. with just over 4 weeks until World MS Day (28thMay), the day I will be holding the launch of my Capsule Collection/M.S Awareness Fundraiser it is full steam ahead in the Print Studio!!
Here is a sneaky peak at what I have been up to!